Phase Four
last update2025-06-09 19:20:04

Chapter 8: Phase Four

Istanbul — 0450 Hours (Local Time)

Golden Horn Ferry Terminal

The city hadn’t woken yet. The Bosphorus shimmered in pre-dawn gloom, silent but watching, as if it knew what storm was coming.

Knox crouched behind an abandoned security kiosk, breathing slow, watching the terminal below through a monocular.

Jessa and Lena were already inside, masked in a wave of dockworkers and fishermen prepping the first boats.

Halvorsen was perched beside him, cleaning a stolen AK-104.

“They’ll be here,” he muttered. “Phase Four won’t wait.”

Knox didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. He could feel it too—the stillness, the way every shadow stretched a little too long, every civilian face looked a second too calm.

A net was closing.

0453 Hours — The Trap

Lena keyed into the terminal’s backroom, using a thumbprint lifted from a SIGMA analyst two nights prior. Jessa followed, locking the door behind them.

Inside: servers. Power boxes. Surveillance grids.

“This is one of their temp nodes,” Lena said. “They piggyback on commercial terminals across Eurasia. Mobile brain hubs.”

“Why Istanbul?” Jessa asked.

Lena pulled a flash drive from her jacket. “Because the East-West fiber trunk runs beneath this dock. SIGMA’s embedding data into civilian infrastructure.”

She plugged in the drive.

The screen blinked to life.

Strings of code. Maps. Profiles.

Knox’s face.

Jessa’s.

Even Lena’s.

But also others:

Senator Amos Dale – U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee

General Petra Ko – NATO Command Liaison

Vera Sigurd – CEO, Helion Bioware Systems

Anders Kray – AI Ethics Panel, Geneva

Targets.

Replacements.

SIGMA wasn’t just building a private army.

They were positioning their people to replace power structures—bit by bit. Quietly. Systematically.

Lena whispered, “Phase Four isn’t infiltration…”

“…It’s eradication.”

0456 Hours — Arrival

Knox and Halvorsen entered just as the lights flickered.

“Pull the data,” Knox said. “Now.”

Outside, screams.

Then silence.

Lena grabbed the drive. “They’re here.”

Jessa scanned the rear exit. “Two minutes max before breach.”

Knox moved to the window.

Three black SUVs. Four unmarked bikes. Tactical movement—silent, tight, lethal.

No insignia.

SIGMA Ghosts.

Halvorsen stepped beside him. “We can’t win this one straight.”

Knox stared back. “Don’t plan to.”

0458 Hours — The Counter-Strike

Halvorsen pulled a small device from his pack—handmade, stitched together with frayed wires and a dented transmitter.

“What the hell is that?” Jessa asked.

“A frequency disruptor,” he said. “Primitive. Ugly. But SIGMA’s Ghosts operate on hive-link comms. If I jam their sync node, they go blind.”

Lena hesitated. “That means staying behind.”

Halvorsen looked at Knox.

“I’m already dead, remember?”

Knox shook his head. “Not your call.”

“It was the moment they made me choose between my daughter and my team.”

He handed Lena the EMP fail-safe.

“Get that to someone who can broadcast it wide.”

Lena clenched her jaw but nodded.

Knox gave Halvorsen a long look.

Then turned and kicked open the side door.

0459 Hours — Hell at the Ferry

Gunfire erupted as Knox and Jessa sprinted across the dock, ducking behind crates and overturned barrels.

Behind them, Halvorsen stood in the terminal with the disruptor raised high. The moment the Ghosts entered—

Pulse.

A white wave of static burst out.

Knox saw it. The SIGMA units paused—just a split-second—but long enough.

He fired into the nearest.

Armor splintered. The man dropped.

Jessa took another through the neck.

They moved like predators—silent, efficient, surgical.

0502 Hours — Losses

Knox reached the far pier as Lena leapt aboard the ferry.

He turned, covering her.

Behind him, Jessa reloaded.

And then—

BOOM.

The terminal exploded.

Fire consumed the structure.

Knox stood frozen.

Jessa stumbled beside him, blood on her brow.

“No sign,” she said. “He knew.”

Lena grabbed Knox’s arm. “The drive is intact. We need to vanish.”

Knox nodded once, jaw set. Eyes burning.

“We will. But not before we burn them back.”

0505 Hours — Elsewhere

A SIGMA data chamber. Buried beneath the Swiss Alps.

Vance stared at a terminal.

"Disruptor activated. Istanbul node compromised. Halvorsen confirmed KIA," said Carter.

Vance’s face barely moved. “Then they have the key.”

“And the prototype failed,” Carter added.

Vance turned slowly.

“Time to deploy Echo Chain.”

“Are we sure?”

Vance smiled coldly.

“Knox thinks he’s chasing the truth.”

He tapped a screen—pulling up an old video.

A child. Small. Eyes wild.

Lena Halvorsen. Age 9.

“Let’s show him who raised her.”

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